So for the past month and a half I have been completely absorbed in one of the greatest TV series of all time "A Different World". And when I say absorbed...I mean absorbed. Like there may have been about 20 seconds where I thought I went to Hillman. So after watching my girl Cree Summer (whose resume, by the way, is longer than U.S. Constitution) in the role of Freddie I got the urge to listen to some of her music. I immediately gravitated toward some of my favorites from her Street Faerie album; Deliciously Down, Mean Sleep, Miss Moon, etc. then I came across one that I had heard but had clearly not listened to, if that makes any sense.
Savior Self.
This song haunts me in a good way. Every time I listen to it I get caught up in the drums and the lyrics and her voice! I mean my goodness! That girl can SANG.
After listening to the song for like the 15 hundredth time, I went on the web looking for any interviews where she talked about the song- I love listening to artists talk about their work in their own words. I didn't find an interview but I did find a blog where a woman had posted the song, discussing how much the song had meant to her. Clearly I was with her on that, the song is everything! But I kept reading and seeing comments that said stuff like "played this song for my son, wanted him to know he can't depend on anyone but himself" and "listen to this everyday, it's just me in this world." After a while it almost got to be scary to read all of these comments that glorified the solitary that the song is about. Is that itself the ideal? Is that something that should be celebrated?
I started thinking about songs that dealt with dependency and comaraderie. My list looked something like:
- Reach Out (I'll Be There)
- I'll Be There
-That's What Friends Are For
- Lean On Me
the latest of which came out in 1982.
the '90s and 2000's have been the era of
Bad by Myself and Me, Myself and I
Practically thinking, we are more independent as humans than we ever have been. Just reaching as far back as our parents' generation, we don't live near family as often, with going away to college almost being an expectation, more people are moving away from home and starting new lives in new cities on their own. Even in parenting, our motto has changed from "it take a village to raise a child" to "its none of your business".
We tend to be more reluctant to allow people into our lives in a deep way. We have become a generation of nervous airline passengers:
1. We speak and are polite to the people we encounter in an everyday context but relationships seldom extend beyond the superficial- there aren't deep, trusting connections with people the way there were in other times.
2. Like passengers putting on oxygen masks, we help ourselves first before helping anyone around us.
3. We're ready at any moment to reach under our seats, turn them into flotation devices and seek refuge from any impending danger.
4. We are more preoccupied with survival than the actual trajectory.
so while I love the song Savior Self, is the mindset behind it something we should be so quick to praise wholeheartedly? Do we celebrate self-sufficiency at the expense of connection and community?
